The subordination of the gender equality objective: the National Reform Programmes and ‘making work pay’ oplicies

The streamlining of the Lisbon strategy has introduced new integrated guidelines for economic policy and employment strategy and a new report format––the National Reform Programme. In the first year of this new reporting mechanism, Member States have paid less attention to gender mainstreaming and gender equality objectives, not least because the gender equality guideline has been removed. Streamlining has further exposed the narrow and instrumental focus on gender equality measures in the Lisbon process as a means of raising the employment rate rather than a broader concern for equal opportunity. This narrow gender equality approach also dilutes the efficacy of the economic and employment policies that are advanced. Some positive steps to advance gender equality continue to be taken, but the reforms are partial, uneven and coexist with negative developments. We illustrate this with an evaluation of the policy trajectory in relation to the ‘making work pay’ agenda for low‐waged workers (tax/benefit reform, minimum wages, childcare and parental leave). We conclude that this latest reform to the Lisbon process has exposed the enormous amount of political work and capacity building that is needed to mainstream gender issues across the whole field of economic, employment and social policies.     

The ups and downs of European gender equality policy

In 2003, equal opportunities policy in the European Union suffered both ups and downs. New opportunities came in the guise of the hotly contested new directive on gender equality outside the field of employment, in the invitation to present the first of an annual report on equality between women and men to the Spring Council, in the consolidation of gender mainstreaming within the second round of the National Action Plans on social inclusion and in the new commitments to ‘substantial reductions by 2010’ in gender gaps in employment, unemployment and pay that were included in the new employment guidelines in 2003. These new guidelines presented, however, a major challenge to gender equality as the new phase of the European Employment Strategy dispensed with the four pillars, and therefore the equal opportunities pillar. Instead gender equality became just one of 10 new guidelines. In December the launch of the Employment Taskforce report appeared to push employment policy back more to a ‘full employment with flexibility’ approach and away from concerns with job quality. The focus was therefore more on the integration of women into employment rather than on closing the equality gap.     

Structural change and female participation in recent economic growth: a multisectoral analysis for the Spanish economy

ABSTRACT

Economic growth has different impacts on gender gaps. In recent decades the growing participation of women in the labour market has reduced the gender employment gap, however a notable gender pay gap still persists standing at around 15% on average in the European Union. In this context, this paper evaluates the impact of economic growth patterns on the evolution of gender employment and pay gaps. First, sectorial feminization, direct discrimination, and structural change factors are identified and evaluated as ways to explain changes observed in the gender pay gap. Second, we explore the influence of demand, technology, and intensity factors on the evolution of employment combining gender, skill, sectorial, and temporal perspectives. As a case study, we examine Spanish economic growth from 1980 to 2007 and the influences on the size, composition (by skill), and distribution (by sector) of female and male employment, as well as the consequences for gender gaps. Our results show that structural change contributed to reduce the gender employment gap in Spain; while the evolution of the gender pay gap is less conclusive, following a sort of inverted U-shape. This paper shows the suitability and potential of the multisectorial input–output framework to analyse structural and technological changes and their impacts on the gender employment and pay gaps.     

The impacts of gender inequality in education on economic growth in Tunisia: an empirical analysis

The positive contribution of women’s education to the economy and society has long been known in many countries, particularly in developing countries, to attract more attention. A large number of literatures on women’s education clearly suggest that educating a woman is equivalent to educating a family and that this woman is better educated than her counterparts, men, in many respects. The low level of education of women in Muslim countries, most of which are in developing countries. The increase in the level of education depends on the elimination of gender inequalities in education. Muslim countries must use all their resources to achieve their economic development goals. Women’s participation in the economy is a major economic resource that is not widely used in Muslim countries. The literature (Dollar and Garti in Gender inequality, income, and growth: are good times good for women? World Bank Working Paper, 21–2 1999; Barro in The Contribution of Human and Social Capital to Sustained Economic Growth and Well Being, Canada Government, Portage 2001; Schltz 2002; Klasen 2002; Knowles et al. in Oxf. Econ. Pap. 54 118–149 2002) suggests that gender equality has a positive effect on economic growth. Taking into account Muslim countries, it can reasonably be argued that the rate of the gender effect on economic growth is higher in developing countries. This paper analyzes the impact of gender inequality in education on economic growth for tunisia will be explored, using econometric techniques. The document will take into account all variables of primary school graduation, obtaining a high school diploma, obtaining a high school diploma and obtaining a University degree with economic growth will be examined in detail for the period 1970–2009. At this level Women’s contribution to the economy is threefold. The first is that the increase in the level of human capital, as a result, decrease the fertility rate of women. The second argument is that the infant mortality rate could decrease by decreasing the fertility rate of women. Third, raising the level of education of women can affect the level of education of the next generation positively. In this context, in order to understand the long-term relationships between these variables, i.e. gender inequality in education and economic growth, a co-integration approach will be applied. The empirical results show that there is a long-term relationship between these variables.     

Gender and management on Spanish SMEs: an empirical analysis

Few studies have investigated the presence of women on the boards of directors of companies. Those that have been done have focused on large firms. In this study we analyzed the gender diversity of a sample of Spanish small and medium enterprises. These firms are of great importance in terms of their number, the employment they provide, and their sales. Furthermore, there is an open debate in Spain about gender equality after the passing of several laws against gender discrimination. We found that women's presence on boards generates a negative impact on firm performance and this result may be due to less risky strategies implemented by women directors. This finding is interesting because it sheds light on how women can affect the functioning of a board. We also found that family firms and firms with a financial institution as the main shareholder tend to have more women on the board. Finally, we show that firms with less debt, more assets, and larger boards have more women as directors.     

Contribution of female human capital in economic growth: an empirical analysis of Pakistan (1972–2012)

This study is to find out an impact of female human capital on economic growth of Pakistan. The study has therefore, used gender separate human capital as an explanatory variable along with other factors, labor force and physical capital. In this regard a composite human capital has been constructed by taking education and health as a proxy for human capital. The long run and short run dynamics among female human capital and economic growth are empirically tested on time series data spread from 1972–2012. Johanson’s co-integration approach has been applied for the long run and Vector Error Correction Model used for the short run relationship. The results show that the long run relationship between female human capital and economic growth is positive and significant. While the short run impact of female human capital on economic growth is positive but statistically insignificant.     

Women as employees and entrepreneurs in the Polish transformation

The article examines the experience of women compared to men in the new Polish job markets with special emphasis on their participation in the explosion of entrepreneurship that has occurred in the country since 1990. Tightening laws related to gender discrimination would have some limited impact on women's employment opportunities. Promotion of entrepreneurship is proposed as an important solution to joblessness – especially for women with general secondary education living outside major cities     

Gender mainstreaming in the enlarged European Union: recent developments in the European employment strategy and Social Inclusion Process

The European Union (EU) has an explicit commitment to raise the employment rate for women and to advance gender mainstreaming (GM) and gender equality in both employment and social inclusion policies. In this article we assess developments in the latest round of National Action Plans (NAPs), with particular attention to the situations in the 10 new member states. GM continues to be patchy and inadequate, with a similarly narrow focus in both ‘old’ and ‘new’ member states. After enlargement, the greater diversity of national situations in conjunction with ongoing reforms to EU policy frameworks create new challenges for GM.     

The impact of the European social fund on youth education and employment

The effectiveness of the European Union's Cohesion Policy in reducing regional socio-economic gaps remains an open empirical issue, while evidence as to how the policy is affected by specific territorial factors and which social groups benefit most from it remains sparse. This article seeks to address this gap by disentangling the impact of the European Social Fund (ESF) on youth education and employment prospects. Drawing on macro-level data for the European NUTS-2 regions, we assess the impact that this fund has on different education-specific youth population shares and employment rates. In the case of education, we find that the receipt of funding is associated with a human capital polarization of regional populations. Specifically, we identify a positive impact of the ESF on population shares with lower-secondary and tertiary education, and a simultaneous negative impact on the share of those with upper-secondary education. In the case of employment, we find a positive response for youth of all education levels. A heterogeneity analysis indicates that both the education and employment responses of the youth population to the receipt of the ESF are strongly influenced by local specialization in high-skilled activities.     

Gender discrimination in education,health, and labour market: a voice for equality

The objective of the study is to examine the impact of gender discrimination in education, health, and labour market on economic growth in a panel of 20 high-income OECD countries for the period of 1980–2015. In addition, the study proposed an index of pro-equality growth, which is flared with education, health, and labour market initiatives to promote economic growth. The results show that gender parity index for educational attainment significantly promotes economic growth while health and labour market required substantial policy reforms to reduce health and labour market inequalities to sustain long-term economic growth. The results classified three countries as highly equitable growth, one country for equitable growth, two countries are moderate growth, four countries are less equitable growth while remaining 10 countries fall in the category of inequitable growth, where greater inequality promotes economic growth on the cost of education, health, and labour market inequalities.     

做好新时期企业妇女工作的几点浅见

随着社会的日益发展和不断进步,中国的职业女性在经济舞台上以自己的聪明才智,发挥着越来越重要的作用,取得了一定的成绩,但从总体上来说,妇女在社会上仍属弱势群体,也就是说妇女有些权益在某些时候会受到侵害。如妇女权益、劳动就业、教育培训、婚姻家庭等问题,这些都是目前摆在我们面前亟待解决的问题。     

What if the supervisor has a different gender? The roles of value fit,identification, and beliefs in gender equality

In the past decades, the number of female employees and managers has strongly increased in most developed countries. This demographic development emphasizes the importance to investigate gender dissimilarity between employees and their supervisor and how it can be managed to elicit beneficial gender dissimilarity effects on employees’ attitudes and interpersonal interactions. Past gender dissimilarity research often assumes women and men to have different values. Due to these value differences, women and men should be less satisfied with a supervisor who has a different gender. However, past research reported inconsistent gender dissimilarity effects on employees’ satisfaction and other work-related satisfaction variables. To clarify gender dissimilarity effects on employees’ satisfaction with their supervisor, we analyze the moderating role of an employee’s beliefs in gender equality. We further draw on social identity theory and investigate value fit with the supervisor and identification with the supervisor as underlying mechanisms of gender dissimilarity effects. To test our research model, we conducted a three-wave survey study with 463 employees. Value fit and identification with the supervisor mediated the relationship between gender dissimilarity and employees’ satisfaction with supervisor. This indirect relationship was only significant for employees with low beliefs in gender equality. This means high beliefs in gender equality can offset dysfunctional gender dissimilarity effects.     

Work–life balance in the EU and leave arrangements across welfare regimes

Work–life balance has been a central theme of the EU gender equality framework and has been promoted through both ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ components. Although the EU concern in promoting work–life balance has been more to increase employment and economic productivity than to promote gender equality, all Member States have now established standards in accordance with the EU regulations. Statutory leave arrangements are a key component of work–life balance policies and they vary significantly across Member States with different welfare regime traditions. This study examines the transposition of EU Directives and the implications of the European Employment Strategy for leave arrangements across the UK, Denmark, France and Spain as exemplars of four welfare regimes.     

Gender equality still on the European agenda—but for how long?

While the momentum has certainly not yet disappeared from the gender equality agenda within Europe, the impact of that agenda remains patchy. Progress within individual member states has been significant but not always steady or cumulative. At the European level more attention has been paid to the gender pay gap but policy initiatives remain weak. The loss of the equal opportunities pillar in the new employment guidelines puts this momentum at risk but the new phase still includes commitments to an integrated strategy of gender mainstreaming and equal opportunities.     

Individualization and Marketization of Responsibility for Gender Equality: The Case of Female Managers in China

This article investigates the question of where the responsibility for promoting gender equality resides in the Chinese employment context. Utilizing Acker's (2006) inequality regimes framework, the study explores women's underrepresentation in management roles in China and explains the persistence of gender inequalities in managerial echelons of Chinese organizations. Based on 30 interviews with female managers, the findings demonstrate the marketization and individualization of gender equality in organizational activity. The existing gender inequality, and the lack of responsibility for tackling it, has been either legitimized by eluding to the commercial‐only focus of organizations or rendered invisible through a belief in individual choice as the determining factor of career progression for women. Gender inequality in management is also maintained through the compliance of female managers themselves with the presumed legitimacy of gender‐based differential access to managerial roles. References to culture and tradition, market forces, competitive pressures, and individual choices by female managers are often made in explaining the unequal career paths and outcomes for men and women in their organizations. Our findings contribute to the human resource management (HRM) literature by framing macrosocietal context as a dynamic and endogenous aspect of management of human resources in organizations and provide novel insights into the interplay between HRM and societal context. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

A “quota silo” or positive equality reach? The equality impact of gender quotas on corporate boards in Norway

10 years after its implementation, we explore the equality reach of the 40% Norwegian gender quota regulation for boards of public limited companies (PLCs) using a multi‐strategy approach (administrative data and interviews with women directors) to capture interrelated macro and meso changes. We employ Acker's (2006) inequality regimes as our analytical framework, augmented by the “equality reach” concept. We found strong compliance with the 40% Quota. However, there was little evidence of voluntary spillover to limited companies as envisaged by Quota proponents; instead Quota coverage reduced as some PLCs changed status to avoid the Quota requirement. We reveal that positive equality reach in one of the most equal countries in the world is confined to a PLC “quota silo,” which has shrunk over the life of the Quota. Moreover, we suggest that PLC high levels of compliance may be a defensive strategy seen as necessary in the regulatory/high sanction context of the Quota. We demonstrate the need for further political and organisational interventions to improve equality reach beyond the quota silo. We also show the value of the equality reach concept for research on equality interventions and warn of the dangers of an intervention leading to an equality silo.     

Local employment growth in West Germany: A dynamic panel approach

In this paper we study the dynamics of local employment growth in West Germany from 1980 to 2001. Using dynamic panel techniques, we analyse the timing of the impact of diversity and specialisation, as well as of the human capital structure of local industries. Diversity has a positive effect on employment growth in the short run, which is stronger in manufacturing than in services. Concerning specialisation we find also positive effects. They are, however, not strong enough to reinforce growth permanently, since there is mean reversion in the process. A positive effect of education is only found in manufacturing. Additionally, we look at the impact of firm size and regional wages on local employment growth.     

PERFORMANCE-RELATED PAY AND THE PROSPECTS FOR GENDER PAY EQUITY

Equal pay for work of equal value has come to be almost inextricably associated with the application of job evaluation. Current trends towards performance-related pay systems pose a potential threat to the pursuit of greater gender pay equality as discretion in pay determination increases and there is no clear relationship between earnings and job grade. This paper examines the basis for this view drawing upon the now widespread literature and research into performance-related pay. the argument is made that the problem for gender equality lies both in the nature of the payment system and in the context in which it is being applied, including the changes in the nature of employment relationships that are accompanying these developments. While some women may benefit, overall the moves towards a widening income dispersion and the increased importance of management discretion and appraisal are likely to disadvantage women. However, the individualization of pay is likely to lead to further fragmentation of the interests of women, reducing the likelihood of collective resistance. Opportunities to monitor pay trends will also decrease as the spread of performance-related pay reduces the transparency of the labour market.     

The 'Impact' of Equal Employment Legislation on Women's Earnings: Limitations of Legislative Solutions to Discrimination in the Economy

A bstract . Although a strong legal basis now exists for equal opportunity in employment for women , women's earnings have actually dropped relative to men's. This holds true even when experience on the job , life-time work experience , and education are similar. Females are also still twice as likely as males to be below the poverty line. The impact of low female earnings may be of even greater significance today because of the increase in female-headed families. Equal opportunity legislation has not been sufficient to end economic sexism.     

Is positive action ‘positive’? Collective bargaining and gender relations in the Irish civil service

Participation in the EC has given Irish unions the clout to press for equality policies. However, economic factors combined with an entrenched sex-gender system hinder women's progress in achieving employment equity. Within the civil service, positive action policies have tended to perpetuate women's marginal status and discourage their labour force attachment.